Archive for the 'The Ronettes' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

Lykke Li's world is a turbulent place. Her show at the Wiltern Tuesday night opened with lights flashing, smoke billowing and columns of black fabric twisting in the wind; it looked like a place evil spirits could call home. And when Li and her four-piece band entered, all dressed in black (naturally), drums pounding as she called out the demanding lyrics of “Jerome” — “I know you're mine / For you are not leaving” — it's possible for a moment to believe she is everything her new album Wounded Rhymes (LL Recordings) promises.

The album presents the 25-year-old Swedish singer as a kind of cross between Björk and Stevie Nicks, and while it presents flashes of the former's willful eccentricity and the latter's spacey romanticism, the concert felt something of a letdown. By the end of her scant hour-long set, the only thing they apparently have in common is a tendency to wear clothing with wings.

For all the atmosphere and rhythmic energy, the thin show seemed short on ideas; in the first half-hour, three songs were built around variations on the drum intro from the Ronettes' “By My Baby.” Halfway through the night, “I Know Places,” a relatively gentle romantic ballad featuring Li on autoharp, could have taken the evening in a different direction, but she quickly reverted to type, turning “Love Out of Lust,” one of the album's more reflective moments, into a bombastic plod. Her current hit, “Get Some,” which ended the set, stood out less because of its familiarity and drive than its use of a Bo Diddley beat.

Even the staging, with its goth black-and-white color scheme, sharply angled lights and long shadows, grew repetitious, nor did bits of red, added toward the end of the evening, achieve the intended drama. (On the other hand, they could have been used to remind the young girls in the audience of her New Moon connection.) Instead, the décor provided one of the evening's more amusing subplots, as Li repeatedly found herself wrapped up and fighting off one of the columns of fabric.

Yet there was still enough to make you want to give Li another chance. She has a beguiling way around a girl-group melody: “Sadness Is a Blessing” can match the Shangri-Las' “Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)” for torchy drama, and “Rich Kid Blues” displays some appealing brassiness.

January 26th, 2010, 4:41 pm by KELLI HART KEHLER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Just as perplexing as it was that the critically acclaimed San Francisco misfits known as Girls chose to play Costa Mesa and skip Los Angeles on their way to a Saturday-afternoon spot at the next Coachella, so too was the band's set list at Monday night's sold-out Detroit Bar show utterly mystifying.

That isn't to say the performance itself was anything short of spellbinding.

Yet it was evident from the start that the packed, chatty crowd at Detroit perhaps didn't know what they got themselves into. The buzz surrounding Girls as the Indio fest approaches -- along with salacious details of frontman and chief songwriter Christopher Owens' upbringing in the notorious Children of God cult -- no doubt drew this crowd of Girls virgins from far beyond O.C. Did these casual concert-goers anticipate such hazy songs and (eventually) a myriad of swirling guitars? Had they even heard Girls' melange of the Beach Boys and Spector's Wall of Sound style, a crossroads where the Ronettes might meet a gutterpunk Elvis Costello?

That remains unclear.

Kicking this typically late Detroit night off with "Ghost Mouth," Owens (above, right) proved his thin, affected vocals nonetheless translate well in a live setting. The thudding, girl-group drums and buttery guitars also lulled the performance into a mellow state from the beginning, while the catchy cut "Laura" kept the mood at a relatively cozy level, the song's closing backup vocals and guitar lines sliding into the air like wisps of smoke.